FTSE 100 off to a muted start; housebuilders decline despite rising house prices – Market Report [Video]

President Joe Biden on Friday said he was still considering whether to give pardons to people who have been criticized or threatened by President-elect Donald Trump.Related video above: Biden grants clemency to nearly 1,500 people in historic moveSpeaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said he and his aides were playing close attention to rhetoric from Trump and his allies about his political opponents and those involved in his various criminal and civil woes.It depends on some of the language and expectations that Trump broadcast in the last couple days here as to what hes going to do," Biden said. The idea that he would punish people for not adhering to what he thinks should be policy related to his well-being is just outrageous."Biden has just 10 days left in office, and the institutionalist has been using his waning days in office to restore some of the transition norms broken by his predecessor-turned-successor. But issuing preemptive pardons for actual or imagined offenses by Trumps critics that could be investigated or prosecuted by the incoming administration would stretch the powers of the presidency in untested ways.Trump's frequent targets include Republican Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat. They helped lead the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. He has aimed particular criticism at special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Biden, who Trump has said should be jailed, scoffed at the notion that he would pardon himself. What would I pardon myself for? he asked incredulously. No, I have no contemplation of pardoning myself for anything. I didnt do anything wrong.Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the Republican members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, rejected the prospect of a pardon from Biden earlier this week in an appearance on CNN.I understand the theory behind it because Donald Trump has clearly said hes going to go after everybody, he said. But the second you take a pardon and it looks like youre guilty of something Im guilty of nothing besides bringing the truth to the American people and, in the process, embarrassing Donald Trump.In his remarks to reporters, Biden said a decision by the social media giant Meta to end fact-checking on Facebook was really shameful, calling it contrary to American justice.The move to replace third-party fact-checking with user-written community notes, similar to those on Trump backer Elon Musks social platform X, was the latest example of a media company moving to accommodate the incoming administration. It comes on the fourth anniversary of Zuckerberg's banning Trump from his platforms after the insurrection.Biden added: You think it doesnt matter that they let it be printed? Where millions of people read it, things that are simply not true. I mean, I dont know what thats all about. Its just completely contrary to everything Americas about. We want to tell the truth.

President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," a name he said has a "beautiful ring to it."It's his latest suggestion to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the "51st State," demanded that Denmark consider ceding Greenland, and called for Panama to return the Panama Canal. Related video above: Trump outlines bold international and domestic priorities in first press conference since election certificationHere's a look at his comment and what goes into a name. Why is Trump talking about renaming the Gulf of Mexico?Since his first run for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a number of issues, including border security and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. He vowed then to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The U.S. ultimately constructed or refurbished about 450 miles of wall during his first term.The Gulf of Mexico is often referred to as the United States' Third Coast due to its coastline across five southeastern states. Mexicans use a Spanish version of the same name for the gulf: El Golfo de Mxico.Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.Related video below: Gulf Coast residents react to Trumps proposal to rename Gulf of MexicoCan Trump change the name of the Gulf of Mexico?Maybe, but it's not a unilateral decision, and other countries don't have to go along.The International Hydrographic Organization of which both the United States and Mexico are members works to ensure all the worlds seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation.Related video below: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum talks about the Gulf of Mexico's nameIt can be easier when a landmark or body of water is within a country's boundaries. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an order from the Department of Interior to rename Mount McKinley the highest peak in North America to Denali, a move that Trump has also said he wants to reverse.Just after Trump's comments on Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said during an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson that she would direct her staff to draft legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, a move she said would take care of funding for new maps and administrative policy materials throughout the federal government.How did the Gulf of Mexico get its name?The body of water has been depicted with that name for more than four centuries, an original determination believed to have been taken from a Native American city of Mexico.Has renaming the Gulf of Mexico come up before?Yes. In 2012, a member of the Mississippi Legislature proposed a bill to rename portions of the gulf that touch that state's beaches Gulf of America, a move the bill author later referred to as a joke. That bill, which was referred to a committee, did not pass.Two years earlier, comedian Stephen Colbert had joked on his show that, following the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it should be renamed Gulf of America because, "We broke it, we bought it.Related video below: Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer addresses Trump's idea to rename Gulf of Mexico on Senate floorAre there other international disputes over the names of places?There's a long-running dispute over the name of the Sea of Japan among Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, with South Korea arguing that the current name wasn't commonly used until Korea was under Japanese rule. At an International Hydrographic Organization meeting in 2020, member states agreed on a plan to replace names with numerical identifiers and develop a new digital standard for modern geographic information systems.The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of Gulf and Arabian Gulf is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company's decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps.There have been other conversations about bodies of water, including from Trumps 2016 opponent. According to materials revealed by WikiLeaks in a hack of her campaign chairmans personal account, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2013 told an audience that, by Chinas logic that it claimed nearly the entirety of the South China Sea, then the U.S. after World War II could have labeled the Pacific Ocean the American Sea.

The lawsuit claims Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance manipulated lending standards when borrowers didn't make sufficient income. The company has denied any wrongdoing.

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